Absurd treatment on SAA flight SA66 to Lusaka, Zambia

I had the most awful experience on SAA this week. I was travelling back to my home country Zambia from Johannesburg on Monday the 16th December. I arrived at the airport at 3.30pm for my flight at 7.30 and checked in my luggage and passed through immigration to wait to board. On boarding my boarding pass was scanned and I was told I had dangerous items in my suitcase and it had been offloaded. I was given 1 minute to make a decision to either fly without my case, or stay and remove the items and get the next flight. It was some bike canisters for my riding which I had overlooked. In tears I asked them if they could assist in anyways and they told me no because it's my own fault. I was at the airport for 4 hours before I was notified and was given no chance to do this until 10mins before the flight. Once I reentered south Africa I went to the ticket office and asked if they could assist me in anyways with a standby flight and they again told me it is my own fault, and I had to purchase a one way ticket back to Zambia the next day for R7540.00. (The cost of return flight to Doha) in absolute tears I asked to speak to the superintendent whose name is Chikizwa Dube. One of the coldest heartless humans I have come across who had no empathy for my situation and again told me it's my own fault. After accepting my fate and paying the ticket I went to try retrieve my bad at the domestic arrivals. A very helpful gentleman was phoning around and checking the system for at least an hour to try find my luggage which he could not locate at this time. I managed to book a cheap lodge for the night and went to rest as it had been a long few hours of trying to deal with the situation. The kind gentleman from the luggage department eventually phoned me and told me he had located my luggage and it was in Lusaka, Zambia and had in fact gone on the flight. So I spent the night with no toiletries, no clean clothes and down almost R10,000 for staying to remove the items from my suitcase. Not only had they sent what they claimed to be dangerous items on the plane, but they sent it without me on the plane either. I went back the next morning and the team leader who was a kind gentleman gave me the email of who to reach out to. I explained in detail what happened and my flight details and have not received a response. This has caused me a huge hole in my pocket right before Christmas and I have zero answers as to the way I was treated by several of the SAA staff.

I am not a frequent flyer as I cannot afford it and this was my first holiday in SA in 2 years to visit my son and ended off leaving a very bitter taste in my mouth. If I could rate zero stars for this airline I would. They do not care and the team leader herself saw me in my most vulnerable state and pretty much turned her back on me. Chikizwa Dube, I don't know how you sleep at night! I may have lost a lot of money but I am glad I still have my compassionate soul and empathetic nature for people around me.